As New Zealand approaches its general election in November, the nation’s healthcare system has emerged as a focal point of public concern and political debate. According to recent polling, healthcare ranks as the second most pressing issue for voters, behind only the cost of living.

The strain on New Zealand’s health services is manifest in widespread reports of long waiting times, stretched emergency departments, and limited access to primary care and specialist treatment. Patients frequently endure months-long delays for surgery or cancer treatments, while emergency departments face overcrowding and staff shortages. These challenges have been exacerbated by the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and structural underfunding, critics say.

Jane Harrison, a 60-year-old resident of New Zealand’s South Island, and her husband Shaun Fitzgerald, 65, illustrate the human impact of these systemic pressures. The couple, both recipients of disability assistance, have struggled to secure timely and effective treatment for Fitzgerald’s spinal stenosis. After a surgery in August 2025 failed to provide relief, Fitzgerald has experienced severe pain and multiple emergency visits, only to be advised by paramedics to stay home due to a lack of available hospital beds. Harrison, who suffers from long COVID, reports difficulty accessing support for her condition alongside mounting out-of-pocket expenses for repeated medical visits.

Healthcare workers echo these concerns. Dr. Katie Ben, an anaesthetist and president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, highlighted staffing and infrastructure shortages, noting a drop in nurse numbers in her local hospital and the continued use of facilities in earthquake-prone buildings. She warned that a combination of funding cuts, reduced access initiatives for Māori, rising demand from an aging population, and significant migration of healthcare professionals to Australia—where salaries can be up to 30% higher—have pushed the system to a “tipping point.”

Tensions around healthcare staffing intensified in late August when it was revealed that only 54 additional full-time nurses had been recruited since the current National-led government took office, substantially fewer than the 2,000 promised by Health Minister Simeon Brown. The minister has defended the government’s record, citing improvements such as 75% of emergency patients being seen within six hours, higher childhood immunisation rates, shortened elective surgery waiting lists, and an increase of 40,000 elective surgeries facilitated by contracts with private hospitals. However, Brown acknowledged that “the system remains under pressure” and too many patients still face delays.

In terms of international comparisons, New Zealand’s healthcare ranks near the middle among OECD countries. While its per capita health spending and number of practicing nurses are above average, the country faces lower-than-average availability of hospital beds and doctors.

The election campaign has seen competing policy proposals aimed at addressing healthcare concerns. The National Party has pledged to increase the medicines budget by NZD 604 million, funded by cuts to foreign aid outside the Pacific region. Labour has promised to reinstate a smoke-free policy, provide free prescriptions, introduce three free general practitioner visits each year (to be funded via a targeted capital gains tax), and guarantee jobs for new graduate nurses.

With the National and Labour parties neck and neck in recent polls, and smaller parties like the Greens, ACT, NZ First, and Opportunity holding the balance of power in New Zealand’s mixed member proportional electoral system, healthcare policy and system reform are likely to remain high priorities in the lead-up to and following the election.